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Sibanda tears into Thokozani Khupe

Bulawayo provincial spokesperson for the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, Felix Mafa Sibanda, has taken his gloves off against party deputy president Thokozani Khupe whom he accuses of high-jacking party members in the province to pursue her political ambitions as cracks continue to widen in the troubled party.

Over the weekend, Sibanda issued a statement on behalf of the province backing the appointment of vice president Nelson Chamisa as the acting party president in Tsvangirai's absence.

Party provincial secretary Nomvula Mguni dismissed the move by Sibanda, accusing him of issuing personal views disguised as provincial statements.

"It's his personal view. We never sat as a province to discuss such an issue. I am the secretary of the province and I am not aware of that and what that means.It means he is speaking on his behalf not on behalf of the province," Mguni said in reaction.

However, Sibanda did not take the response by Mguni lightly and described her as one of those who had been high-jacked by Khupe in their anti-alliance mission.

"The majority of the Bulawayo executive and structures are not surprised by the anti-MDC Alliance and anti-VP Chamisa's acting capacity for the MDC party," Sibanda told Southern News.

"We want to reiterate once and for all that it is most unfortunate that some of our members have been hijacked by VP Khupe and her other two colleagues. It is on record that Khupe has been boycotting the national standing, national executive and national council meetings for more than three months or more," he said.

Sibanda said this was evidence that Khupe and her cabal were anti-alliance and "enemies of the people".

He said while MDC was a democratic party that accepted divergent views it could not accept outrageous selling out for self-preservation.

"We therefore, shame anyone who uses tribal or ethnic card to divide Zimbabweans. We are one people, one nation with one density. We are calling everyone in Bulawayo in particular and Zimbabwe in general to refuse tribalism, ethnicity, regionalism, corruption, and all other divisive mechanism being applied by the anti-Alliance renegades so to speak," he said.

"Khupe and her colleagues must rethink for there is still time to reconcile and move forward as a team of the MDC family. Splits are most counterproductive and a humiliation to the hopeful nation," Sibanda said.

Khupe could not be reached for comment yesterday while her spokesperson, Witness Dube, accused Sibanda of seeking political relevance.

"We don't have any motive to justify his nonsense. He is just but trying to seek political relevance so we can't respond to that nonsense as we are not in his league," Dube said.